Some eloquent thoughts from Naomi Clark and Jennifer Armintrout on Laurell K. Hamilton‘s recent tweet that seems to trivialize mental illness and getting treated for such. (Thanks to Nicole for the initial link to Naomi Clark’s post!)

Reading UpdateZero Hour by Jordan Castillo Price. ebook. Very good m/m cyberpunk/dystopian scifi with a dash of romance. I think, with the very best scifi, you can see how things got from here to there without much trouble… and that is definitely the case with this story. Ernest is 30 and his one-month long retirement has started, at the end of which he’ll be demagnetized and reclaimed. His very first stop is an actual coffee house (nearly unimaginable in a world where nutrients are provided intravenously via permanent shunt), where he meets Will, who is very unlike anyone else…Lines in the Sand by Lyn Gala. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a driver for the mob who turned informant. He removed himself from witness protection and is back in his home town, working, when the former mob enforcer (and former friend) shows up…Moving Miss Probert by Kim Dare. free ebook short. Cute free short m/m romance (inspired by a photo I took in San Francisco) about two guys with a moving van.Muscling Through by J.L. Merrow. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a big, muscular, tattooed guy who’s very sweet, if not very bright, and how he met his boyfriend, who’s the complete opposite. It shouldn’t work…Red Velvet by Angelia Sparrow. free ebook short. Very fun free short scifi m/m story about an amnesiac alien leading an anger management retreat.Ranger’s Folly (Lost Shifters #12) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance about a Wolf shifter who can’t stop thinking about the elusive long lost Eagle shifter twin after meeting him for only a few minutes.Sockeye Love by Sarah Black. ebook. Good m/m romance about a photographer who usually avoids attachments, but becomes involved with young law student he met while photographing salmon in Alaska. This is told as a series of scenes several months apart and, as a result, felt choppy, making it hard for me to connect with the characters.For One Night Only by Anne Brooke. ebook short. Good kinky short m/m story that consists of a flashback, then a single bdsm scene. Things are left very open at the end. While this was very well written, I felt distanced from the characters and story.The 51st Thursday by Mercy Celeste. ebook. Good m/m romance about a bartender/bar owner who’s been watching a guy come in every Thursday evening for the past 50 weeks. On the 51st Thursday, when the guy shows up late, he gets stranded at the bar with the bar owner because of a hurricane… My major complaint with this book was pronoun confusion.Jaynell’s Wolf (A Wizard’s Touch #1) by Amber Kell. ebook. Ok m/m paranormal romance about a wizard arriving at wizard college after the death of his father and meeting a very forceful werewolf… This definitely drew a lot of inspiration from Harry Potter.Kevin’s Alpha (A Wizard’s Touch #2) by Amber Kell. ebook. Ok m/m paranormal romance about a student wizard, terrified of commitment, who finds himself strangely drawn to the alpha werewolf.Dylan’s Dilemma (Kindred Spirits #5) by Jude Mason & Jenna Byrnes. ebook. Ok m/m paranormal romance about Cade’s brother, Dylan, who’s taking care of the inn while Cade and Ethan are on their honeymoon. Dylan doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he’d sure like to figure out where that little girl in the nightgown lives so he can talk to her parents about her showing up at the inn in the middle of the night, causing a disturbance…The Surveillance Detail by Derek Adams. ebook short. Ok short gay fiction about a cop who’s sent undercover to get close to a crime lord’s younger brother, even though the younger brother has no ties to the crime lord. This was basically just stroke fiction.Witches (The Written Word #1) by Jamieson Wolf. ebook. So-so m/m paranormal romance about a man who can see beings that no one else can see. Because of this, he must protect those beings from an evil man. This didn’t draw me in at all… and every time I hit a pronoun tangle, I amused myself by picturing things happening exactly as they were being described. O.O

Thanks to Eyre for pointing out the stats function on Goodreads (it’s in the “My Books” dropdown)! I’ve read 415 books in 2011, and here’s how they’re distributed (click to embiggen):

“Is it time for dinner yet? No? How about now? No? How about now?” -Chaos

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Comments

Too funny about the Bodice-Ripping cliche! The Mary Sue has a point. There were probably a lot more undergarments than a bodice to slog through when attempting to do the deed. And, good Golly, you’ve read a lot this week! I’m so impressed.Val Kovalin’s last post ..Weekly update with patriotic table ornament

I gave my husband my ereader this week, because I upgraded my device (to something that can handle monster PDFs). I’m hoping that he gets lured into one of the M/M stories on there, because his reactions will be worthy of candid camera.Seanna Lea’s last post ..running around in the sprinkler

I actually made those English Muffins (same recipe) on Saturday. I’ve made them quite a few times, and they’re very good.

Larry insists that air conditioning caused a great decline in our civilization. People used to sit out on their front porches and talk to each other, the kids played outside, and everyone got to know their neighbors. After air conditioning, we all got used to hiding in our cool homes.Cheryl S.’s last post ..WIP Wednesday

I am still in awe of the number of books you’ve read so far this year!

I am really freaked out by the foot nipple pictures. (We won’t mention that I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying two figure out if Zac Efron actually has four nipples.)Eyre’s last post ..I’m Back & Recent Reads